These days, I am preparing myself mentally to let go of the fear of childbirth. (Yes! After 6 times!! And I still have fear!!) Praying and meditating upon some Scriptures, and reviewing a blog that I wrote two years ago Childbirth:To fear, or Not to Fear. I thank the Lord that as days are closing by, He makes me more calm, peaceful and positive about what is lying ahead. I myself sure could not make myself to come to this state.
Then I came across this article the night before yesterday, "Today's the day" by Russell Board, and was encouraged by his words, without knowing that I would immediately be put into test yesterday.
"Yes, today is a gift. And it has my name on the tag. This present from God has been custom-made for me. God has filled it with blessings, some obvious and some in disguise. Its difficulties and challenges are tailored to fit my size. It may not be exactly what I asked for, but it is exactly what I need.
This day comes equipped with a set of fresh opportunities. In its joys and pleasures, I can show my gratitude to God. In its trials and temptations, I can prove my faithfulness to God. In its pains and hardships, I can demonstrate my trust in God. In whatever form, the day's events will bring opportunities for service to God and others, and chances to exhibit the virtues of faith, hope, and love.
Best of all, God Himself will meet me today……….." – Russell Board
The weather of yesterday was strange. We all expected it hot with a humidex of 40 degree Celsius, and it was!! However, after a few drops of rain at around 4pm, our place cooled down to 18 degree celsius. I thought there went to heat, but no, it started building up again! And the humidex was around 34 degree celsius after 5:30pm!
Then I received Derek's call around 6pm that he had a car accident. He didn't have his own phone with him, so he didn't talk much. All I knew was he was OK and he couldn't be home any time soon. Then I gathered the children to pray for Daddy's safety and thanks God for keeping him safe during the accident.
At around 6:30pm, a lady at CAA called and let me know that my husband was on his way to a collison centre with CAA, and he would try to call me when he was there.
Not long after this call, the sky turned black, and started to rain hard suddenly. It was raining REALLY hard, the wind was blowing hard as well! The wind was so strong that it really frightened the children. And the electricity was down. After we ran around and closed all the windows, I gathered the children again to pray for protection. Since we live in the country, we really see the power of nature first hand. We could see a big tree being knocked down in just seconds of strong wind…. So we prayed that God will keep us safe, and keep this property safe, and most importanly, we did not know if Daddy was on the road in this strong wind, so we prayed again that he would be safe.
During the prayer, I spoke from my heart that God would keep this baby in me during this time as well. Yes, I am 37.5 weeks pregnant. And I just received an email at 5:30pm before all this happened about our friend having her baby at 37.5 weeks. I couldn't help but thinking what if…..and I couldn't imagine if any car can drive in this kind of wind….and I just didn't know where my husband was at that time…. I was so tempted to fear, to tremble, because I could not think of a plan on my own if the baby did really decide to come at that moment. So I kept asking the Lord to give me peace and keep me calm, and He did. Then I thought I needed more prayers as well, so I called my mom and let her knew about the situation and she prayed with me immediately on the phone. After that, I served the children candlelight dinner, it's dark enough that we wouldn't be able to tell if there's a fly in our bowls.
We were so thankful that we did not need to wait for long before the strong wind and rain gone. But we kept waiting for Daddy's call. There's no calls from Derek. And there's no car driving up to our drive way. And I kept reminding myself, "Today is a gift".
At 9pm, I finally decided to ask the children to go to bed first. And that's the time we saw a CAA truck coming in with Daddy and our car.
Lord, we can only thank You and praise You.
And thanks God that we can all go to sleep peacefully last night though the electricity was still down at that time….